Golf, or a pastime similar to the game we know today, has been played for centuries. Since it's beginnings, golf has grown to be one of the world's great past times.
In the game of golf a player employs a set of golf clubs to propel a ball across a course littered with obstacles, from a point where the ball is balanced in mid-air to a point where the ball finishes in the cup. A typical set of golf clubs will include a putter, 4 woods and 9 irons.
The general construction of a golf club includes a hand grip portion, a shaft extending downward from the hand grip portion and a club head at the end of the shaft opposite the hand grip portion. Unlike devices used to contact the ball in other sporting games, a golf club is asymmetrical. That is, the shaft and hand grip are offset from the club head and thus not in line with the point of contact of the club head with the ball.
Because of this offset, a golf club is inherently prone to rotate during the swing. In addition, the club head is prone to rotation about the shaft when the ball is contacted. This rotation of the club head imparts a spin to the ball which results in either a slice, i.e., the ball curves undesirably outward during flight; or a hook, i.e., the ball curves undesirably inward during flight.
There are many golf clubs known in the art designed to minimize this tendency and thereby improve performance of the club. Some efforts are directed at improving performance through redistributing the weight through the club. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,679,791 to Hull teaches a golf club with an improved center of gravity. Through proper club weight distribution, rotation of the club head upon striking the ball is reduced.
Other improvements focusing on improving the weight distribution of the club head itself have been introduced. While these efforts have met with some success, a need remains for a club design which utilizes a new approach to the problem of club head rotation and which further reduces the tendency of the club head to rotate during the swing and rotate about the shaft upon contact with the ball.